24. The Guadiana River Delta

Abstract

The Guadiana Estuary is a good example of rock bounded estuary which consists of a single narrow estuarine channel with a meandering morphology imposed by faults systems affecting the hard geology of the substrate. Only along the last kilometers of the estuarine channel, the valley opens when Cenozoic Guadalquivir Basin formations appear. In this area, the Guadiana develops a prograding coastal system constituted by successive sandy barriers separated by salt marshes which configure a wave dominated delta. This progradation is possible thanks an interaction of the coastal agents which enhanced the silting in addition to a good availability of sediments. This chapter explains an explanation of the dynamic functioning of the open coastal environment, so as the resulting facies model.

Bettencourt, P. (1988). Contribution of the sedimentological study for the understanding of the recent evolution of a barrier island system (Algarve, South of Portugal).
Bulletin Institut de Géologie du Bassin d’Aquitaine,44, 81–96.